Ask a Question

Appliance Configuration Copy for Version 1 Appliances

Issue:

Appliance Configuration Copy for Version 1 Appliances

Product Line:

NetBotz

Environment:

NetBotz version 1

Cause:

This document explains the procedure to copy the configuration of one 3xx/4xx legacy appliance to an equivalent 3xx/4xx appliance. In essence it copies the configuration, verbatim. Most commonly, this procedure will be used when an RMA is sent to the customer and they want to preserve their configuration.

Resolution:

WARNING: This process requires each appliance to be of the same model and firmware level. In addition, it is important to note that ALL information, except usernames and passwords, will be copied.

In this example we`re copying the configuration from the appliance on the left, IP 192.168.2.161, to the appliance on the right, IP 192.168.2.126 (notice the external ports, location, and other custom information differences).

The first step is to FTP the file from the source, or original appliance. To do so, follow the steps outlined below, or in the screenshot:

FTP from a DOS prompt to the appliance IP, and login as the supervisor user for that appliance.

Type "bin" at the first "ftp>" prompt to ensure data integrity of the file transfer.

"lcd c:" is an arbitrary value that simply changes the destination directory on the local PC to C: (or whatever path you specify). Default will be your default Windows directory.

Now we issue the command to retrieve the configuration file from the appliance, "get device.rsc". This will copy the file from the appliance to the directory specified in step 3 above.

"quit" will simply allow you to exit the FTP session.

Once we`ve retrieved the file, and located it in our C: folder, we must now rename the file to ensure we don`t copy over this file when the 2nd appliances configuration is retrieved. Simply rename the file to something other than "device.rsc", in this example we renamed the file "orig-device.rsc".

Once the file has been renamed, we must now retrieve the file from the new or destination appliance in the same manner we retrieved the file from the original appliance.

Rename this file as well, in this example we used "new-device.rsc".

Once both files are retrieved, we can now begin the configuration changes. Open both files with Microsoft WordPad in order to edit them. We will be copying ONLY the encrypted values and MAC address information from the file on the right (NEW) to the file on the left (ORIG).

In this example, the lines below were copied from the file on the right, to the file on the left:

With the exception of the "serialno=" field, these are all encrypted strings that are calculated using the MAC/serial number of the appliance. Since we`re copying this information to the *original* configuration file, this will replace the usernames and passwords on the original appliance with the ones from the *new* appliance. Important to remember the usernames and passwords from the original appliance cannot be retained.

You can attempt to customize the config this way as well, just be sure you understand the field(s) you`re customizing before copying over the file to the new appliance, otherwise you could lock yourself out of the device.

Once the lines above have been posted over the corresponding lines in the file on the left, save the *original* file as "device.rsc".

Once the file is saved, we can now FTP the new configuration file called "device.rsc" to the new appliance in order to change it`s configuration to match the old appliance. Keep in mind that in doing this, the IP configuration will also be copied, so if both devices are still plugged into the network there will be an IP Conflict. The IP conflict can be avoided if DHCP is used on the appliances.

To FTP the file to the appliance, follow the same steps as before, simply change the command from "get" to "put".
Notice the "quote reboot" command after the file transfer is complete. This is required to commit the changes after the file is copied. Once the appliance comes back up, it should have the entire new configuration.